Panorama of summertime in St. Mortiz
A short blast in a vintage Ferrari from the crowds of the Côte d?Azur, the two most prestigious villages in the Alps offer glamour, sunshine, fine dining and more than enough space. Darius Sanai would go nowhere else in summer
Walking through the grand dining room of Le Restaurant at the Badrutt?s Palace, I felt two dozen pairs of eyes glance up at me. Our table, a good one, was a little beyond the centre of the room, meaning a decent double catwalk?s length stretched between the landing at the bottom of the staircase leading from the lobby hall, to the sanctuary of the table. The glances ? Badrutt?s Palace clientèle is far too well brought up to stare ? varied between the mildly interested and the appraising. The Palace has a claim to be the grandest legacy hotel of the Alps, the epitome of old money in St Moritz, the resort which personifies Europe?s inherited and regenerated wealth. Its regular guests wanted to know who was joining them. After a couple of days, we got to know the Badrutt?s regulars, at their tables. The lady in the Chanel glasses, immaculate in white Dior trousers and a vintage Dior jacket, sitting and nursing her green tea and water, reading the Süddeutsche Zeitung. A ringer for Greta Garbo, she could have been one of a number of German movie stars from the sixties. The young couple with a little boy who conversed with them in French, English and Italian, seemingly at will, and who had befriended all the waiters. ...